Soil

Soils are one of Earth’s essential natural resources, yet they are often taken for granted. Most people do not realise they are a living, breathing world supporting nearly all terrestrial life. Soils and their function within an ecosystem vary greatly from one location to another as a result of many factors, including differences in climate, the parent material of the soil, and the location of the soil on the landscape.

Soils develop on the top of Earth’s land surface as a thin later, known as the pedosphere. This thin layer is a precious natural resource as it deeply affects every part of the ecosystem. For example, soils hold nutrients and water for plants and animals, and they filter and clean water that passes through them. They can change the chemistry of water and the amount that recharges the groundwater or returns to the atmosphere to form rain.

The foods we eat and most of the materials we use for paper, buildings and clothing are dependant on soils. They play an important role in the amount and types of gases in the atmosphere, and they store and transfer heat, affecting the temperature of the atmosphere and controlling the activities of plants and other organisms living in the soil.

Students can use GLOBE to learn how soils function. By studying these functions, students learn to interpret a site’s climate, geology, vegetation, hydrology and human history. Information about soils is integrated with data from other GLOBE protocol investigations to gain a better view of Earth as a system.

For more information on GLOBE soil protocols, please visit the teacher’s guide at the GLOBE website here...

Project Ideas

For years 1-3 you could get your students to explore the composition of the soils. Are they able to explain the difference between the materials in the soil and separate the organic material and stones from the fine particles of sand and clay?

Year 4-8 students will be able to explore the composition of the soil even further. Are there linkages between the pH of the soils and what plants and animals are able to live there? They could also compare the filtering between various soils, and use a hydrometer to discover the different types of soils.

Older students will be able to explore the linkages between their soil investigations with protocols in other study areas. What is the soil composition like next to your hydrology site? What kind of plants would be best suited to this type of soil? What impact does canopy cover and atmospheric conditions have on soil? What causes the chemical characteristics of soil to change?

Further soil activities for Levels 1-4 can be found in the Ministry of Education’s ‘Making Better Sense of Planet Earth and Beyond’ in the Landform chapter.

Soil investigations can also be easily linked into tree-planting programmes that are in schools, such as Trees for Survival, organic gardens and horticultural classes.

GLOBE PowerPoint Presentations and Data Sheets

These are the PowerPoint (PPT) presentations that have been used in GLOBE workshops. They are useful for helping you to understand the various soil protocols.

To view further PowerPoint presentations on advanced protocols click here... Further soil resources can be found in the Resource section of this website.

Soil Kits

GLOBE New Zealand has two soil kits that can be loaned out to GLOBE schools. This kit includes most things required to undertake the GLOBE soil protocols, including a hydrometer, sieve, scales etc... If you would like to use the kit for a soil investigation, please email emap@rsnz.org with the details of your project and what dates you would require the kit for.